Excerpt from Scandalmonger by William Safire, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

He motioned them to a couch in the sitting area of his office. The heavyset Speaker sunk deep into the cushions; the ascetic Monroe demurred, choosing a hard wooden chair.

Muhlenberg's evident agitation did not surprise Hamilton. The Pennsylvanian was understandably upset by the disappearance of Reynolds after he was let out of jail, but that investigator's displeasure was the penalty Hamilton had to pay for removing a most damaging witness from the scene. Hamilton was more concerned about the judgments of the Congressman's austere companion; Reynolds, on the morning that Hamilton sent him out of town, had identified the second man as James Monroe.

The Treasury Secretary knew that the Virginian was closer to Thomas Jefferson than any other member of the Senate. Monroe in the Senate was as attuned to Jefferson's machinations as James Madison was in the House, but was more subtly combative and far more politically astute. Months before, Hamilton had been informed that Jefferson had gone to President Washington with unsubstantiated charges that Hamilton had been guilty of "dealing out Treasury secrets among his friends." He considered that a vicious half-truth. Perhaps he had been indiscreet in dinner-table discussions with longtime associates in the political wars, and perhaps his somewhat greedy friend William Duer had profited from the information, but Hamilton never intended to "deal out secrets" for anyone's personal gain. In this more specific matter involving Reynolds, Hamilton was aware that whatever Monroe learned, Jefferson would soon know; and whatever the underhanded Secretary of State wanted done, his henchman Monroe would do.

His fellow Federalist Muhlenberg, however, was the one who made the accusation directly: "We have discovered a very improper connection between you and James Reynolds, the speculator and perjurer."

Hamilton rose from his chair and motioned his accuser to be silent. "I resent that, sir. You do not have the facts to substantiate such a wild and vicious charge." He calibrated a rise in his indignation, using a voice capable of conveying intimacy in a bedroom or ringing out in a courtroom: "I am aware that you have been marching all over Philadelphia asking questions of criminals and spreading rumors that I am no better than a common thief. I fought long and hard for this country's independence, gentlemen, and I did not risk my life for its freedom to join in some tawdry scheme to undermine its financial integrity."

"You misapprehend us, Hamilton," Monroe came in smoothly. "We do not intend to take as established fact the informatnd which you admit now to be your own writing -- "

"I will show you many more letters attesting to a connection between Reynolds and me. The fact of the connection is not in dispute. But the purpose of the connection is not what you suspect."

This was all news to Wolcott. He had never dared ask what hold this criminal Reynolds had on his superior.

"My real crime," Hamilton went on, "is a loose connection -- an amorous connection, I should say -- with his wife. More shocking than that, gentlemen, this amour was pursued for a considerable time with his privity and connivance."

That revelation was met with silence. Wolcott could imagine Hamilton's dalliance with Maria Reynolds -- an undeniably beautiful and mysterious woman, with aristocratic features not unlike Hamilton's -- but the notion of conspiring with her husband to seduce and entrap the Treasury Secretary stretched credulity. Could it be that the husband was the pimp and his wife the whore? And Hamilton was doing business with them? Wolcott made an effort not to appear profoundly shaken.

"That much I can prove with these documenpicions, but to assert it freely would begin to disarm them. "I wrote that. I tried to disguise my handwriting, but the note is from me."

"Why did you try to -- "

Copyright William Safire February 2000. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the publisher, Simon & Schuster